Political Football

Link to article on Obama’s proposed changes

why overhaul?  “sweeping regulatory changes” …   it wasn’t enough to try to control 17% of the national economy with a health care bill…  (and I would like someone to study how much of HR3200 is really health care… )

I have a huge problem that most if not all of the Hope and Change this President wants to push through, needs to be driven by an attempt to panic rather than lead.

I’ve read things like none of this (HR3200) even starts until 2013, so what’s the hurry.

Then another thing surprised me in the last days.  Why would the President want to piss off China?  Talk about the new “sleeping giant”. (tires… o, it’s a union thing I get it)

But now that the Health Care bill is going south he wants to do something bigger to the economy.

The billions spent for “stimulus” have done nothing except to pay employment rather than laying off various state’s employees and some short term building projects – and less than 25% of the billions have been spent.

People are  saving now, but it’s out of fear.  No one (that has a brain) wants to extend their debt or take any risks that will grow the economy and I’ve read it has to grow @ 3% just to stay even.

I can understand some tightening of SEC regulations that may have caused some of the Wall Street and banking problems, but let’s not forget, the SEC is a government agency and their lack of foresight is what got us here.  From what I’ve read, the problems did sift up (Maddoff, etc) – either people were too scared or too ignorant to pull the plug.  Governments don’t run businesses well, there is a ton of evidence to prove that.

I think I will dig up some documentation for some of the things I’ve written here and more now…  I just want what’s left of my401K to be there for me when I retire.  If I retire.  I still feel like we’re teetering on the edge of a cliff and this President’s adviser’s main advice is to “never waste a good crisis”.

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stupid little hint for the day:  removing Firefox AVG toolbar

I like to use firefox when blogging because it has a spell checker that IE doesn’t.  In FF updates, they tend to add on a AVG toolbar – and I hate extra tool bars on my screen.  (now this may be only for AVG users which I am, but) if you want to remove the AVG toolbar in firefox – take this link: disable AVG toolbar in Firefox

It’s been a bad day and tonight in the dark, I took a wrong turn on the way home from Rock Falls.  I tried to mitigate the damage by getting off I-80 just into Iowa turning onto HWY 67 – I know that road…

Guessing which way to turn, I quickly second guessed my decision as I drove through the dark farmland – !Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! there should be city here – where is it?  Soon, I see a sign 67 SOUTH so I should be ok, but I don’t know where I am and I should…  Finally a sign – Pleasant Valley, yes ok ALCOA – hmmm wonder if Liz lives over there a bit and yes, Scott Community College – I didn’t know it was over here… coming into Bettendorf… nothing looks familiar and it should.

As I pull through stoplight after stoplight and pull up to the pulse of music next to me I lock my doors.  This is Bettendorf, what’s wrong with me; the wrong turn has shaken me silly.

Looking down at my clock, only 10 minutes has passed and it seemed like an hour of driving.  I hit the lights of Davenport, and remember how it used to look on the River – now Las Vegas like with the glitz and glare of the lit over pass and  Casino blinking lights – I think back to a video story I wrote for a class at MCC 35 years ago…  Sleek lines, future shock, beautiful people and I wander through what I remember of that story of people hurrying by with no recognition of good or bad, right or wrong, up or down…

I’m snapped back to reality continuing on HWY 61, now remembering the cemetery on the side of the road heading south out of Davenport.  Everything looks familiar now and I relax a bit.

I start to think of this wrong turn as a metaphor of the last years…  wrong turns are normal…  but today up is down, good seems bad and right seems wrong anymore. I feel like some momentous decision needs to be made and don’t know what the question is…

Over the last several days there has been a “status statement” going around Facebook that reads:

No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.

This totally inane statement seems to have been written by someone who makes me want to scream “what does this even mean?”.  I would beg the author to put this in context of a rational thought, question or statement – not some drivel that makes the poster feel better about themselves and I can only assume – anger toward someone else.

I can guess it’s about the Health Care debate going on in the USA today – and I’m organized in body and mind enough to say this about the FB Status…. 1) isn’t that sweet and 2) go back and give me an attainable goal please.

Let’s view the history of plans such as these in the world today and fix only what’s broken.  There is no historical evidence that 17% of our economy can be fixed by Government bureaucracy; Trust in God, everyone else needs to bring data.  We have the time to do this right.

We need to work together to find solutions, not posture one side against the other.  If we can’t have real debates about real issues, we’re lost as a country.  Too many wrong turns have tossed us round the bend, and I think there are limited chances to regain balance.  Pray for this country, pray for us all.